Sheriff's bark takes bite out of taxpayers

In August 2007, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio staged what turned out to be a $775,000 dog-and-pony show.

Minus the pony.

Arpaio's deputies arrested Chandler police Officer Tom Lovejoy whose K-9 partner, Bandit, died after Lovejoy forgot him in a police vehicle for the better part of a day.

The case against Lovejoy was all bark and no bite legally, but it played well on TV and it was a publicity bonanza for Arpaio.

The officer was charged with animal abuse for what was a tragic accident. An overworked, overstressed man forgot about a dog he had trained and loved.

"I always took responsibility for what I did," Lovejoy told me earlier this week. "But there was no criminal intent."

That didn't stop Arpaio's office from arresting Lovejoy and hauling him to jail. It didn't stop the county attorney (now disbarred), Andrew Thomas, from proceeding with the case, which was prosecuted by his deputy (now disbarred), Lisa Aubuchon.

Lovejoy was acquitted.

He was removed from the K-9 squad but has remained with the department. For a long time after Bandit's death, however, Lovejoy was all over the news. His mug shot was on the Internet. He and his family got death threats.

The officer and his wife, Carolyn, decided to sue the sheriff.

Arpaio's lawyers tried to get the lawsuit tossed, but U.S. District Judge Neil Wake said that dog won't hunt.

He told the sheriff's attorneys, "The press release, the press conference on the day of Lovejoy's arrest and the fact that no reasonable official could conclude that the animal-cruelty statute applied to Lovejoy could all be reasonably interpreted by the jury as 'reckless disregard' of Lovejoy's rights in pursuit of other goals, such as publicity and political gain."

Last week, the county's lawyers agreed to a settlement of $775,000 for the Lovejoys and their attorney, Michael Manning. Afterward, Arpaio's office declared ... victory?

Yes.

The sheriff's public-relations team sent out a press release saying that Lovejoy "struck a deal with county officials for $175,000, a fraction of the original asking amount."

It was an attempt to change the subject, to point out that the Lovejoys' share of the settlement was $175,000 in order to highlight the $600,000 that would go to their attorneys. The idea was to shift the discussion away from the sheriff.

When I told Arpaio I would be writing about the Lovejoys, he said, "Why don't you write about the attorneys who get all the money?"

Instead, I asked Tom and Carolyn Lovejoy if they were upset by the way the settlement would be divided.

"Not at all," Carolyn said. "Our lawyers worked for four years on our case. Four years. That's a long time. And it wasn't just Mr. Manning. There were others."

Tom added, "It's unfortunate that you have to resort to something like a lawsuit to seek justice, but that's how it is sometimes. Luckily for us, this law firm has the muscle to take on the county. If you don't have a strong law firm on your side, they'll just roll over you."

Carolyn added, "Besides, back when we first filed a claim, we set the amount at $350,000 for the whole thing. For us. For our lawyers. Everything. Because of the delays and fighting us, it ended up at $775,000."

Manning, their attorney, told me, "The Lovejoys are good people who never should have been subjected to anything like this."

In the months after Bandit died, news reports surfaced of several other deaths of police dogs, including at least one in the care of sheriff's deputies. None of those cases resulted in arrests.

"What happened to me was a show for the sheriff," Tom Lovejoy said. "I only hope that it's over, and that no one else has to go through it. Although I doubt that."

After all, this wasn't the first time Arpaio's bark took a bite out of the taxpayers' pocketbook. And as we know, you can't teach an old sheriff new tricks.